Just as Qing Mu began refining the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's soul ring, on the other side, Di Tian finally arrived at the Lake of Life shortly afterward via spatial teleportation.
"My lord, the plan to recruit the Deep Sea Demon Whale King has failed."
Arriving at the location of the Lake of Life where evolution takes place, Di Tian spoke with some shame.
"Um?"
After a while, Gu Yuena reappeared, looking somewhat puzzled.
"Failed? What happened? Could it be that the other party is stubborn and incorrigible?"
Gu Yuena frowned and pressed for an answer.
With her abilities, she could naturally sense that the Deep Sea Demon Whale King was a soul beast nearly a million years old. It wouldn't be impossible for her to refuse to recruit it, thinking it was better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
Di Tian replied, "Although that Deep Sea Demon Whale was indeed very arrogant, its thoughts actually changed after I revealed the Dragon God Claw. The reason this recruitment failed was because of that human named Qing Mu!"
"What did that human do this time?"
Upon hearing Qing Mu's name, Gu Yuena's expression turned serious, and she subconsciously pressed for an answer.
Di Tian replied, "Then humanity chose the Deep Sea Demon Whale King as its ninth soul ring, so..."
Di Tian didn't say what he was going to say next, but Gu Yuena knew what he meant.
With Qing Mu's strength, which allowed her to defeat Di Tian, defeating a million-year-old soul beast without divine power would be a piece of cake. Perhaps the Deep Sea Demon Whale King has already been transformed into a soul ring.
"Fine, I won't blame you this time."
Gu Yuena sighed and waved to Di Tian, signaling him to leave.
Seeing this, Di Tian finally breathed a sigh of relief, bowed respectfully, and then quickly left the spot.
After Di Tian left, Gu Yuena rubbed her temples, "How could such a monster appear among humans?"
Qing Mu was able to defeat Di Tian even before he acquired his ninth spirit ring, so now that he has obtained his ninth spirit ring and become a Title Douluo, his strength will only be even greater.
Unless she takes action herself, there are no soul beasts left that can threaten the other party, but she cannot take action, otherwise she will easily attract the gods of the God Realm.
"Hmph! If we can't afford to offend them, can't we at least avoid them? The soul beast race has no shortage of time."
Gu Yuena snorted coldly, somewhat annoyed.
Given Qing Mu's current strength, there's a high probability he'll become a god. Once Qing Mu ascends, they'll naturally no longer need to concern themselves with matters of the heart.
If they don't become gods, they'll only suffer for a few hundred years, which is nothing to soul beasts.
In any case, the time she needs to recover from her injuries will be more than several hundred years.
After an unknown amount of time, Qing Mu finally finished refining the soul ring of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King.
His level jumped from 90 to the peak of 96, just one step away from 97.
Upon opening her eyes, Qing Mu exclaimed in surprise, "I've actually leveled up directly to the peak of level ninety-six!"
His soul power is now several times greater than before, so even when using the Mega Venusaur form, it won't be so strained.
But thinking about it, it's normal. He has defeated two soul beasts, Di Tian and the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, in succession during this period, and also absorbed the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's soul ring, which is nearly a million years old. It's not impossible for him to directly increase his level by six.
"Da na~"
Upon seeing Qingmu wake up, the Venusaur, which had been warily watching its surroundings, quickly came to Qingmu's side.
Qingmu smiled and patted Venusaur's head.
He was very grateful to Venusaur. If it hadn't awakened him as a martial soul, he might have been able to become a Title Douluo through his own efforts, but he would never have become a Title Douluo at the age of less than fifteen.
It's even more impossible for him to possess such terrifying combat power now. In the original story, Huo Yuhao had to use many cheat codes to defeat Di Tian in the end, but he did it at the Soul Douluo stage, even more easily than Huo Yuhao in the original story.
At this moment, Poseidon also walked over and smiled at Qing Mu, saying, "Congratulations, Lord Qing Mu, on successfully breaking through to the Title Douluo level. Such a young Title Douluo is probably a first in the history of the Douluo Continent."
As she said this, Poseidon looked at Qing Mu with a hint of envy. Qing Mu was not only young, but he had also broken through to level 96.
Back then, she spent a lot of time raising her cultivation level to level 96, and only she knew the hardships she endured.
"It was just some lucky encounter, nothing more."
Qing Mu cupped his hands in greeting to Poseidon. Of course, he couldn't say that he was able to do all this on his own, but only because his Ivysaur had a cheat code.
Poseidon shook his head. "This is no fluke. There are many extraordinary encounters in this world, but you are the first person to break through to the title level at your age."
Upon hearing this, Qing Mu smiled slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Immediately afterward, Poseidon looked at the corpse of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King floating at his feet and said to Qing Mu, "Lord Qing Mu, this Deep Sea Demon Whale King has many treasures. In addition to the soul ring, his soul bone, whale glue, whale brain, and whale pearl are also good things. If you can absorb them, your level will probably advance even further."
Since she had already waited so long, Poseidon didn't mind waiting a little longer. She was also eager to see how far Qing Mu could go if he absorbed all of these things.
"oh?"
Upon hearing this, Qing Mu reached out and grabbed the glowing soul bone from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's body, which flew out of the corpse and landed in Qing Mu's hand.
However, this time the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's soul bone is not the torso bone from the original work, because Qing Mu already has the Ice Emperor's torso bone, but a right hand bone.
With the addition of the right hand bone from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, Qing Mu only needs a left leg bone to complete his full-body soul bone set. In fact, Qing Mu already has this left leg bone, and more than one.
Among the soul bones given by the Snow Emperor was a 100,000-year-old one, and the soul bone that Qing Mu obtained when he killed the Azure Bull Python was also a left leg bone.
Therefore, Qingmu has actually collected all the soul bones in his body, and with the help of the Heart of the Ivysaur, these soul bones can theoretically be nurtured to the level of divine artifacts.
Next, Qingmu took out the whale glue, whale brain, and the two whale pearls from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King.
The whale gelatin and whale brain were like jade, while the two whale pearls were the size of eggs, subtly attracting the energy of heaven and earth.
Looking at the two whale beads in his hand, Qing Mu's eyes flashed with surprise, because he found that the shape of the two whale beads seemed somewhat familiar.
"Could it be... that these two whale pearls are actually the soul cores condensed by the Deep Sea Demon Whale King?"